LAMBERT HARMENSZ. DOOMER | View of the Belvedere and Hoenderpoort, Nijmegen

J.F. Ellinckhuizen,
his sale, Amsterdam, 16-17 April 1879, lot 10;
Karel Emil (Charles) Duits (1882-1969), London (L.533a),
by whose descendants sold, New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2001, lot 266,
where purchased by the late owner

Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Rembrandt als Leermeester, 1956, no. 101

P. Sliepenbeek, Het Valkhof, Brügge 1961, reproduced p.34;
W. Schulz, Lambert Doomer, diss. Berlin 1972, pp. 48, 359, no. 264;
Idem, Lambert Doomer, Berlin 1974, pp. 20, 82, no. 183;
W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, vol. 2, New York 1979, p. 852, under no. 397

Overall condition extremely good and fresh. Hinged to mount at top. Two brown paper tabs from previous mounting attached to verso, at top edge. Some staining from these tabs visible on recto. One or two other very minor marks and stains, and a little surface dirt, but condition otherwise extremely good. Sold framed (CHECK)
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Doomer's great series of large, topographical drawings, mainly depicting locations in France, Germany and his native Netherlands, constitute a distinctive chapter in 17th-century Dutch landscape art.  The artist's German journey postdated by nearly two decades his better known trip along the Loire valley and elsewhere in France.¹ He appears to have travelled up the Rhine around 1663, making numerous drawings of what he saw on the way.   

In the 1670s, some years after his return to Amsterdam, he made quite a number of repetitions, versions and variants of those travel drawings, presumably for sale to collectors such as the famous Amsterdam merchant Laurens van der Hem, who assembled one of the greatest collections of topographical drawings and prints of its time.²  As Sumowski noted (see Literature), this grand and compositionally innovative depiction of the Belvedere at Nijmegen is one of these autograph versions; the corresponding 1663 travel drawing is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.³

Doomer's fine topographical drawings have been avidly collected, ever since the 17th century. Major groups, including another variant of the present composition, belonged to the Amsterdam collectors Jeronimus Tonneman and Cornelis Ploos van Amstel.  

^1.  So fulsomely published by Stijn Alsteens and Hans Buijs, Paysages de France, dessinées par Lambert Doomer et les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVI^eet XVII^esiècles, Paris 2008
^2.  See Een wereldreiziger op Papier, De atlas van Laurens van der Hem (1621-1678), exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Paleis op de Dam, 1992
^3.  Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-T-1888-A-1600; Sumowski, op. cit., no. 397